Where were you when you decided to become a Giants Fan?

my dad’s a Jets fan (but he likes the Giants too…he pretty much roots for every NY team unless they’re playing each other). I became a Giants fan primarily for two reasons: 1) the first football game I ever watched was Super Bowl XXV, when I was 5 years old. When my dad told me who the teams were, the only thing I knew was that I was from New York, so I rooted for the “New York” team (luckily I didn’t know enough about geography as a 5 year old to realize the Bills were the only actual NY team…my life would suck hard if I was a Bills fan). I was also a Bulls & Braves fan, because I chose to root for them in their respective championships that year. I eventually converted to my dad’s teams (Knicks and Mets) in the other sports, but the Giants stuck, mostly b/c they were from NY, but also b/c I loved Phil Simms, one of the few pro athletes with hair as blond as mine was.

I wasn’t nearly as big a football fan growing up as I was baseball and basketball, probably b/c I didn’t play it as much, though I do remember being really happy when Kent Graham beat the undefeated Broncos in 1998. But in 2000, my aunt married a guy who had Giants season tickets, and he took me to a few games. Actually going to the games + the Super Bowl run really turned me into a die-hard fan, which I’ve remained to this day. Ironically, I think not living in NY anymore turned me into a bigger fan, b/c I had to try harder to follow the team, and that led me to finding this website – sports really remains my one true connection to New York, which is one of the things I love about them.

was a fan of Steve Young growing up because we are both lefties and he was tearing it up as a 49er in the early 90’s when i was growing up. I converted into a Jets and Giants fan sometime around in the late 90’s as Young’s skills declined. I was initially a Jets and Giants fan, but gravitated to the Giants. I have loved the team ever since and stopped supporting the Jets, even though I do not hate them. Micahel Strahan was the first player I loved because i played defensive end in middle school football and also received his jersey as a gift. The Giants are my team and that will never change never again.

My first Giants memory at the ripe old age of six was wide right. I also quickly learned to hate the Cowboys as they proceeded to win 3 of the next 4 Super Bowls. I was devasted after the beating the Ravens gave us in 2000. Especially after we dismantled that 15-1 Viking team.

Charlie Connerly was the QB.

They decided to raise me in the Philly area, so I’ve been dealing with ass holes for all but the 9 years i spent in CT. I’m back in Philly and SB XLII could not have been sweeter. Believe it or not though, most of the Eagles fans at my house were Giants fans that night. I was in 2nd grade in ’91, and I distinctly remember my gym teacher giving me shit for wearing my Hostetler jersey after the Super Bowl.

I grew up a giants, yankees, rangers, knicks fan….don’t know why, don’t know how….my father told me this is who we’re rooting for so I got my ass on board….god bless his soul.

I came here via Canada, than upstate NY, than Brooklyn….I guess I was in canada, considering I was a fan before I could remember any memories….

all though there is a foggy memory of my pops taking me to Cooperstown to the MLB hall of fame….I asked him to buy me an Orioles hat because I liked that stupid Cartoon Bird they had on the hat….hey, what can i say, i was a little kid…..like really little….

I was and still am a huge LT fan and it was because of him in which i became a Giants fan. My dad being a cowgirls fan and my mom was a bungles fan. I guess living in ohio my whole life i have never really had a football team to root for besides the buckeyes. My dad says he has no real explaination for me rooting the ny football giants and still doesnt understand it. if you were in my household for the 90’s or the decade of dallas as like dad likes to call it, it would have drove you to NY one way or another. If i was him i would have dressed me in cowboys gear from day one. When i procreate there is no way that kid isnt going to be a giants fan.

Unfortunately Seagulls are annoying as all hell, they fly around and shit constantly…don’t know how, or why, you’d wanna be a fan of them. Plus my Dad was a Giants fan!

My family rooted for the Giants and it was forced on me as a child and has been the same way since. Live in NYC and have been around Jets, Pats, and Eagles fans most of my life.

Born in Vermont, but everyone in my family is Giants fans.

Originally became a Pats fan because I’m an asshole.

Dad took me to my first football game after we moved to NJ, I was maybe 10 at the time. It was Rodney Hampton’s last game in Giants Stadium, Kent Graham led the Giants to a victory and clinched a playoff birth over Washington that day.

The atmosphere swallowed me up, and never let me go.

but living in Australia. My passion has grown every season since ’07

I had been watching the superbowls back home in the UK and never really had a team. Then i made my first pilgrimage to the states and the wonder that is NYC. All i could see everywhere i went was blue jerseys with a great big 10 on them. They said manning on the back but what it meant to say was “the future”.

After that summer i started at college and joined the college team, getting more and more engrossed in football i needed a team to support and to play on madden. Those blue jerseys and the New York Football Giants came rushing back to me and they became my team.

What i wasnt prepared for was the way they would take over my life, they have replaced my life long EPL team as i can only care about one team properly, and thats the Giants.

I was there in London for that wonderful game and i still remember the joy of watching Superbowl XLII in the Union bar with one other Giant fan. We went crazy let me tell you (lots of glory supporting pats fans in the UK).

anyway enough reminiscing, Gmen through and through since 2004.

Looks to me from these posts that it is genetic. Some kind of mutated chromosome that carries through generations. Seems like I heard that it is actually is carried on the X chromosome like baldness.

Born and raises a Giants fan.. Concieved and birthed in Middletown, NY where my parents owned an Italian American resturaunt and bar… I can remember sitting on my pops lap watching the Giants first superbowl in our basement… 91 in florida praying for the FG to go wide either way with my aunt brother and parents… So basically I’ve followed them closely my whole life probably around 11 yrs old is when I got into the stats and knowing every single player, 20yrs later I have a Giants tattoo a zillion autographs followed them around for the 2007 run, game to game… Die Hard

And the first Giant memory i can remember is super bowl, circa ‘86. i was 8, and i can remember sitting on my pops lap as we wheeled the TV into the kitchen to watch the big game. i don’t know if it was the bigness of the game, the fact that this was “my” team as a new yorker, or the fact that this was a true bonding moment with my pops, but i can only assume that this was the exact moment i became true and blue. i also think that this is the reason i became a Mets fan as well, as a kid you want to root for the winners. if it were the Jets in that position that year, well, i’d probably be over at GGN right now.

I cant even play with any other team in Madden, I tried but then about 3 games into the season i quit and go back to the G men………. I think I need Rehab but im just fine with Od’ing

traitors

I arrived in the states as an immigrant in 1985 (I was 11yrs old). I started watching and following sports in ’86. I was more of a basketball fan at first due to the showtime Lakers. I was intrigued by the sport of football (this was not the kind of “football” we played in El Salvador – LOL) and started watching whatever games I could that season. I saw a Giants game that year in which LT had a monster game and fell in love with the tenacity with which he played. My other instant favorite was Mark Bavaro. I was hooked after that. The Giants of course, ended up going to the Super Bowl that year and I rooted them for them harder than I had rooted for anything in my life up to that point. 20+ yrs later, I am still in love with the team. I finally got to go and watch a game in person this past season. I made it out to New Orleans. Fortunately I was able to forget all about the game on Bourbon St.!!
Love all the stories, great idea to get this one started… GO BIG BLUE…!!

Late bloomer b/c my dad is a shitty football fan, but was introduced to football by the 85 bears (good thing I didn’t take that train.) So I started watching football in the 1986 season, and we got a lot of Giants games, thank God. I still remember watching and recording the Broncos Superbowl victory… Thank you dad for not setting a good example as a Patriots fan! Now go back to your UConn women’s basketball game …

I thought it was pretty cool when we played the Dolphins in the first NFL game overseas at Wembley Stadium in 2007. From what I read some of the European Futbol players were watching the NFL guys warm up and remarked how fast they were considering their size. Back when Osi was a beast, that’s gotta be something to see up close!

The yr was 1959. I was at my grandfathers house in Waterville, Maine. The Giants were playing the Cleveland Browns at Yankee Stadium. Sam Huff was our middle linebacker. Jim Brown was Cleveland’s running back. He is the greatest RB I have ever seen!
My grandfather was a big Giants fan, and that first Sunday that I watched a pro -football game, I was hooked for life on the Giants. Some of my memories were the great years of Y A Title throwing TD’s to Del Shofner, playing in Yale Bowl, ( I was there for the Namath Boot leg play), The new (old) Giants Stadium first game against the Cowboys. I had many great tailgate conversations with John Mendenhall, Doug Kotar, Troy Archer, Brian Kelly, and many more. I once had a ride in LT’s Lexus at Fairleigh Dickenson University. I was at the first 2 Super Bowls. Had breakfast with George Young in CA at the first SB. Was invited to breakfast because of my late great friend Ron Anderson, from Malden MA. He and George were real close, so Ron introduced me to him. George Young was one of the nicest, and classiest, people I have ever met. The Giants are one of if not the most classiest organizations I have ever seen. The best memory I will ever have as a Giants fan is their Super Bowl victory over the Cheaters from Boston. I have lived and worked in MA. From time to time and what a thrill it was to shut up those arrogant, ignorant, Pats fans. I will always LOVE my Giants,and HATE the PATS.
I can truthfully say that I think the NY fans are the most knowledgeable and loyal fans in the world. The fans that post on this site are very passionate, but they are very intelligent football fans as well. This site is the best ED!

My grandfather was a Giants fan and my dad was a Giants fan so I know I have been one my whole life. The first game I can remember watching was Super Bowl XXI in my basement family room. I was 5 years old and clearly remember the passion with which my father watched the game.

I’ve moved around alot being in the Navy, but I always try to make sure that I am able to watch the games. I have only missed 4 games that I can remember (because I was out to sea), luckily they were all terrible losses.

My dad ran a commercial laundry and we had the contract for a little while. I used to ride out there in the truck and collect aprons or whatever. Got to kick the soccer ball around with the Cosmos once. (no, nobody famous.)

I remember being all psyched that Larry Czonka was joining the team. Damn, I’m old.

My dad is a sportswriter here in Brazil and back in the 70s he was assigned by a newspaper to cover the Santos FC, the team where Pelé played most of his career. In 1977 when Pelé was retiring and making his last game with the New York Cosmos my dad was sent by the newspaper to cover the game since Santos was the opponent. After the end of the match he took a little piece of the Giants Stadium’s turf and brought as a souvenir here to Brazil. At the time he had no idea what football was.

Then in 1984 he was sent to Los Angeles to cover the Olympic Games for a television station and was there that he first came into contact with football…and became a huge, huge fan of the sport (he is a die hard 49ers fan) following every season since then. I was born in 1988 and did not get the great era of LT, Simms and others. My first contact with american football was when I was 11 years old, in 1999 and get hooked by the game. Since I didn’t understand English at the time and knew almost nothing about the NFL I’ve picked the team which my father took the small piece of turf back in 1977.

I didn’t make the wrong choice. =)

I moved from Cleveland to NJ, and was actually a Browns fan! LOL a Giants Offensive Lineman by the name of JT Turner moved down the street from me, and I got to know him and his family. He used to take me to practice with his Niece who was the same age as me, guess he figured she would have someone to hang out with and I was in awe, all the players were so nice. I really got to know a lot of the Giants of the 80’s and their family’s even dated LT’s Niece, needless to say I got a lot of free tickets and watched a lot of games and rooted for the Giants because I knew a lot of them.

in central Jersey (?). Was just a baby during the Simms-Parcells era, and the oldest memories I can recall go back to the golden age of the dynamic duo, Dave Brown and Rodney Hampton

but loved watching John Brodie heaving bombs to an outstretched Gene Washington on the 49er’s. After they retired, ( and I hate to even think about this, much less say it)
I watched the Cowboys. A teenage boy at the time, I think it was more about the COWGIRLS then the cowboys.

But even then, I also enjoyed watching Fran Tarkenton on the Giants run around like a chicken with his head cut off and once Craig Morton was traded from Dallas to NY there’s never been another team for me.

30 something years later and a die hard Giants fan, I do have to admit that I still enjoy
the Dallas Cowgirls (alot)!!!

Born and raised in Connecticut. Good, bad, or ugly I always cheered for big blue.

should’ve been it’s own option.

I was born without a choice in the matter. Dad is a fan, so… And in all honesty I’d have it no other way. This team has held a special place in my heart for years, most memeorably for me has to be SBXXV… i was a little young to truly appreciate XXI.

I just remember two things, 1 my dad standing 6’4" at least 220 jumping into the arms of his friend 5’7" about 150 and hitting his head on the ceiling as Norwood’s kick drfited off course.

2 a Bills fan in my 7th grade class that harrassed me merciliously about how great Buffalo was and how bad we were gonna lose, (must have caught a case of laringitis that Sunday) I didn’t say a thing on Monday… just strolled by and gave a glance Blue pride pumpin thru the veins, and a look on my face that must have said “Do you have anything else to say?”

It really struck me how attached i was to this team, and how much they affected my Dad as well. Since then I haven’t found anything that compares to a Giants win.

I was born into a Giants family. I grew up about 10 mins from Giants Stadium, and w/ my lineage, there was never a doubt what team I would root for (even though my brother was a Dallas fan..let’s just not go there). I can recall certain games at certain times, but the 1990 season was the first season that I can remember watching the whole season ( would have been 8 y/o). But, of course, what stands out the most is that now infamous Super Bowl.

It was my mother, my grandma, my aunt, my brother (not the Cowboys fan), and myself sitting in the living room. My father had passed away less than 2 weeks after the Giants won their first Super Bowl, so we had his picture and we put it on the coffee table so he could watch the game. When Scott Norwood went to kick that ill-fated field goal attempt, we take full credit for his mishap. I can’t express to you the amount of bad juju we were sending his way (Italian horns, FTW!)

I suppose you could say game 1 of the 1990 season is when I knew I was a true Giants fan. But it was January 27, 1991 that solidified me as a die-hard New York Giants fanatic.

the Giants got their one tie during that miserable 3-12-1 season and my dad kept saying “Do you believe this a freaking tie, they can’t even pull this one out!” thats the first Giants game I remember and then to clinch it for me a few months later that same year my Mom got me a Giants long sleve T-shirt for Christmas with Moahatt on the back and my Dad kept calling me Zeke cause it was a funny name. From that point forward I was a Giants fan.

I was with my my uncle, my 2 cousins (they were born and raised in the city and were all Giants fans) and my dad (he never followed football, now he does b/c of me). We were riding home in my uncle’s car and stuck in traffic on route 3 just outside Giants stadium. I was 7 years old and it was hot as hell in the car (hot summer that year, I remember a few heat waves). I don’t remember if the Generals won the game or not, but I remember the general mood of everyone and I think the lost that game. I asked my uncle why they called it Giants stadium and he mentioned the Giants. I thought, if they named the stadium after the Giants then they must be better than the Generals and that’s when I officially started following the Giants. That’s the only thing I remember from that moment, that and throwing up in my uncle’s new ride (it was just too damn hot!). I guess I christened my changing of the teams if you can even call it that. Not like I was a Generals fan, my uncle just had free tickets to the game.

Not me. My dad was a Packer fan. You can imagine how much fun it was watching with him as the Giants lost twice to them in championship games during the early sixties. I was more into baseball in the late fifties. I think most kids were. I feel truly lucky to have watched Don Larson’s perfect game and all the other heroics of the Yankees back then.

I really don’t remember watching too much NFL until I saw the famous game between us and the Colts in the 58 season. In 1960 the AFL came into being and it was wide open football. I used to like the Houston Oilers with Billy Cannon and George Blanda.
The Denver team had a quarterback named Frank Terpuka who aired it out nearly every playl I think the feud with the AFL created as much interest in football as the famous overtime game did.

Two of the most exciting Super Bowls ever were the Jets and Chiefs wins. I remember at work in 68 most of the guys said they weren’t even going to bother to watch the Jets get slaughtered but as the game began I gave it a peek. I’m glad I did because it was rivoting.

He always said I didn’t have a choice of whether being a Giants & Yanks fan, but it was just joking around because I rooted for the Bulls as a kid even though he was a big Knicks fan. I immediately became a real Giants fan in 1984 (at 8 years old) when I really started to pay attention to sports. It was the perfect time to become one, since this was when they really started to kick it into another gear & had the best player on the planet. I now have my dad’s LT jersey from then, as he passed away last year. One of my most prized possessions.

Im from Monmouth County, Central Jersey…

ive also been a giants fan my whole life. my mom dad grandma grandpa and my older brother were all fans so i was born a fan.

im like that with all sports.. too bad my family picked the rangers giants knicks and mets tho :)

but in all honesty i would have it any other way..

i probably first starting paying attention in 98-99 or so, when I was 6 or 7. Because the players I remember was a kid were toomer, tiki, hilliard, Jurevicius, strahan, armstead, collins, and sehorn. and of course the 2000 propelled my interest in the team and the sport..

and started watching football around “75” or “76”. Back during that time on Sundays you got the Giants on channel 2 (CBS) or the Jets on channel 4 (NBC). Blue has always been my favorite color so there was no need for a coin toss.

I have posted my history previously. To reiterate … raised in London, went to a couple of the American Bowls in early 1980s at Wembley Stadium. Around the time the Giants were winning SuperBowls, supported them ever since. My football team is Tottenham Hotspurs, so no colour association there. Live in New Zealand since 1992, and love it.

 But what I wanted to say was that this is a great post. It has been awesome to read the stories of the fans, thanks for sharing. A real community builder.

Giants lost to Pittsburgh – the game that created the picture of a bloody Y A Tittle on his knees after the loss.

Saw the game with my father the Cleveland Browns fan But he liked the Giants too.

Became a fan – as they entered a bleak period. Anyone remember the Baby Bulls?

I lived in Jersey City at the time (1980’s) and I can tell you I was a fan of the Giants before their Superbowl run in 1986. Leonard Marshall and a couple of Giants would bowl at Roosevelt Lanes in Jersey City and they were great guys.

Anyway, none of my family really watched football. Back in the 80’s, in Jersey City, there was NOTHING to do on Sunday. Stores were closed (remember that? Bergan County still has Blue Laws), and the only thing to watch was Kung-Fu on FOX 5 or Football on CBS or NBC. I choose to watch football even though I knew nothing of the sport. Anyway through the years I watched Simms perfect in the Superbowl and 1989’s devastating loss to the Rams. But I really consider myself an official hardcore fan during the 1990 season. I watched every minute of every game that season (and every game till today). I still remember how heartbroken I was to see the Giants lose that Monday night game in San Fran.. and Simms breaking his leg… but they made it up to us in the playoffs. I still consider the NFC Championship game between the Giants and 49ers as the greatest game (ok tied for the greatest with our 2007 SB game) I ever watched. And that Superbowl.. what drama!!

Anyway, I fell in love with this team because they weren’t perfect. Nor are we. They were just perfect for me. They never won pretty but they never quit. I can say with the utmost joy that I am Big Blue all the way.

Week 17 of the 2007 season. Having grown up a Bengals fan and visiting some family in Cincinnati, we all decided to watch some football. After the Bengals game, we ate dinner and decided to watch the last game, the 15-0 Patriots against the 10-5 Giants. And let me tell you there is no team I dislike more than the Patriots. I watched that game and was thoroughly impressed with the Giants and from that moment on I was a Giants fan. And what a great end to my first season as a Giants fan that was.